but no one else can. or something. and no white man has ever benefited from being a white man in his selection for anything--least of all from the legacy system at universities, or from being a part of the same fraternity, or playing golf together, or anything like that.

and hey--remember when alito talked about the fact that his experiences shaped his decisions on the bench? and how upset the Right got about that? except for the fact that they didn't. because it's ok with the Right if men, particularly non-hispanic and non-black men benefit from the experiences of a justice. but the minute women or hispanics or blacks might benefit, they hit the panic button:

ALITO: Senator, I tried to in my opening statement, I tried to provide a little picture of who I am as a human being and how my background and my experiences have shaped me and brought me to this point... Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position. And so it's my job to apply the law. It...When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. When I have a case involving someone who's been subjected to discrimination because of disability, I have to think of people who I've known and admire very greatly who've had disabilities, and I've watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn't think of what it's doing -- the barriers that it puts up to them. So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.

...as to think that overt racism against latinos is passe. i am not so naive as to realize that sexism is dead, having observed the scathing attacks on hillary clinton and sarah palin that were based not on substantive criticism of their policies (in the case of the former) or qualifications (in the case of the latter) but rather their looks, style of dress, and everything else.

however, the commentary on sites like the new republic and fox news are overtly racist and abhorrent. living in LA i'm privileged enough to think that racism against latinos wouldn't really exist, or at least, would be kept under wraps. I also thought that people knew that not all hispanics are from mexico. but i was wrong about that as well. so whoever sets the curriculum for geography in public schools might wish to take note of the fact that a vast majority of the red-state american public seems totally oblivious to the fact that puerto ricans and mexicans come from completely different countries.

is, unfortunately, a typical example of many rabid pro-lifers. I say "rabid pro-lifers" because i put them in a different category than those who claim to be pro-life, but also claim to desire exceptions for rape or incest or whatever.

my rabidly pro-life, half-puerto rican/quarter white and quarter spanish relative and her rabidly pro-life white husband discovered that his sperm were not swimmers. so they checked with their baptist, rabidly pro-life church on whether or not the church would support her and her husband's decision to solicit a sperm and egg donation from a couple at church, implant the embryo in my female relative, and have her pretend the child was her own. the church gave her the go ahead.

got that? rather than adopt an unwanted, hispanic child, or even get a sperm donor (which would be much cheaper) my hispanic relative obtained the sperm and eggs of white people at church, put them in her body, carried the embryo to term, and now tells everyone that the blue-eyed, aryan child that resulted is hers and her husbands. the rabidly pro-life church approved of this, rather than counseling them to find some desperate knocked-up teenage girl or whatever and offer to adopt and give the child a loving home.

i cannot fathom this. it is like they adopted, but didn't help anyone, and racked up a bunch of hospital bills and got stretch marks.